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Map the Moon During Tomorrow’s Lunar Eclipse

Please help us accurately map the edge of the Moon by timing occultations
of stars during the August 28th total lunar eclipse (Tuesday morning
in Hawaii and the western parts of the Americas, and Tuesday evening in
Australia and New Zealand). This information is needed to help analyze
total and annular solar-eclipse observations to determine solar-radius
variations, since the Baily's Beads phenomena recorded during some
past solar eclipses are caused by the same lunar features that will
cover and uncover stars during the lunar eclipse. Especially needed are video or
CCD timings of the occultations, especially of reappearances, and of
grazing occultations that occur during the eclipse.

Maps showing grazing occultations of stars of mag. 9.5 and
brighter, with corresponding tables, are in the August 28th eclipsegrazes section of IOTA's Asteroidal Occultation website. Especially
good are grazes of 7.8-mag. stars, with path #2 (ZC 3282) being a
northern limit passing near Redding, CA; n.w. of Boise, ID; near
Great Falls, MT; and a short distance n.w. of Moose Jaw, Sask.
Derek Breit has an interactive Google map for this graze, allowing
you to see the path in great detail.

Another good one is path #7,
a southern-limit graze of SAO 165048 passing over n.w. Oregon,
s.e. Washington, southern Alberta, and near Saskatoon, Sask.
Besides ZC 3282, Derek has Google maps for a graze of 11.1-mag. X182578,
whose path passes near Rohnert Park, Beale AFB, and
Nevada City, Calif.; and for path #8 (8.6-mag. SAO 165040) a
little north of #2. Google maps can be prepared for grazes
other than the ones mentioned above on request to either Brad
Timerson at btimerson@rochester.rr.com or Derek Breit atbreit_ideas@hotmail.com.
For example, the paths for two
9.4-9.5-mag. stars pass near San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield,
and Ridgecrest, Calif., and Las Vegas, Provo, and Greeley, CO,
and others pass near Hermosillo, Las Cruces, El Paso, and
Lubbock.

For more information and instructions for reporting your observations, see IOTA's
lunar-occultations website:

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Featured Observing Resources

Our calendar combines gorgeous astrophotography and special sky scenes that illustrate the positions of the Moon and bright planets. It also highlights the important celestial events of every month, including solar and lunar eclipses, meteor showers, conjunctions, and occultations of bright stars by the Moon.